


Following the Guiding Star

by ImpyTricky (rychuu)



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:40:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24438340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rychuu/pseuds/ImpyTricky
Summary: Soon after a natural disaster strikes Japan while Kaito is on vacation, he returns to volunteer and provide aid to those devastated by the event. When he discovers Kokichi Ouma with a group of survivors, he quickly starts to question everything he thought he knew about him.
Relationships: Momota Kaito/Oma Kokichi, Momota Kaito/Ouma Kokichi, Oumota - Relationship
Comments: 12
Kudos: 148





	Following the Guiding Star

**Author's Note:**

> I totally forgot to post this  
> This was written a while back for Oumota Weekend, but I never uploaded it because I intended to make a three chapter fic using the remaining day. However I never wrote that fic, and I ended up liking this fic more as a stand alone. So here you go!
> 
> TW for blood and crushed bones.

Kokichi Ouma, a classmate of his from Hopes Peak academy. Upon meeting him, Kaito found that Kokichi grated against his nerves, always pulling tricks and pranks and never speaking an honest word throughout their time at school together. Kaito didn’t know anything about him then. He only wondered how on earth such an impish, devious person managed to be accepted into Hopes Peak Academy.

Then one day, his saw just exactly what it meant to be an “Ultimate Leader.”

A natural disaster struck, and it left the city in critical condition. Buildings were toppled over, casualties were in the thousands—probably the hundreds of thousands, if Kaito had to guess. He had been one of the lucky ones, being on a vacation with his grandparents at the time disaster struck. His classmates weren’t so lucky.

Despite his grandparents best efforts to convince him otherwise, Kaito knew he had to return to the city and help. He heard that his classmates were all fine, and his heart felt relieved to know they were safe, but he couldn’t help the itch to rush in and help if he could.

A natural urge to help. It was a call Kaito could never ignore.

Kaito volunteered to do whatever he could. Helping provide food, water, and shelter to those who needed it, giving first aid to the injured, whatever he could.

A few days into the work, he was sent out with a small team to aid in finding survivors. Mostly there for his extensive knowledge of first aid and to help with heavy lifting, but he was still doing the best he could in his search for people that may have gotten trapped in the rubble. Kaito was entirely focused on his work…

… At least, until he saw someone walking among the rubble wearing some kind of clown mask.

Kaito had to do a double take, but sure enough, there was a girl in a mask, wearing a white uniform that looked all too familiar but not something Kaito could immediately place. Her clothes looked torn and dirty, but she looked to be in better condition than the other survivors.

Kaito went to call out to her, to tell her that she needed to get to a shelter immediately, but her head turned to face him.

Something about that startled him into silence, yet she didn’t say anything. Not at first, and with her mask, Kaito couldn’t tell what kind of expression she was making. Hell, he only assumed she was, in fact, a _she,_ due to her long, brown hair and how she had braids along the side of her head.

Finally, Kaito snapped out of it by shaking his head, and he called out; “Hey, you! Are you okay?”

She didn’t answer. In fact, she tilted her head.

Kaito moved closer towards her, which made her jump. Skittish, he assumed—surely because of the trauma he could only imagine she had gone through.

“Hey, it’s okay, I ain’t gonna hurt you,” Kaito said, hoping that his tone go that across. “I’m here to help, okay?

“… Help?” She echoed, tilting her head. Kaito saw her shoulders relax. “Oh. Help.”

“Yeah, I’m here to help you.” He smiled. “It’s gonna be okay. There’s a truck nearby, and there’s gonna be cars coming in to take the survivors out of here—”

Suddenly, the girl grabbed Kaito’s wrist, and even more shockingly, she started to look over him. He couldn’t even get a word in as she did circles around him. “… No blood?” She said, frowning. “Where? Help, where?”

“H-huh?” Kaito was a bit dumbfounded, and confused with how the girl spoke. It sounded… off, somehow, though he wasn’t exactly sure why. That wasn’t important, either way. “Wait, what are you doing—h-hey!”

The girl took no time to grab his wrist again, grumbling something he didn’t understand. Another language, he realized, but not one he recognized. He could guess it was a western language, at the very least. It actually sounded like French, but he wasn’t entirely sure.

Either way, she was dragging him along somewhere.

“Hey, wait!” It wasn’t hard to yank his arm out of her hands, with how small she was. Smaller than Himiko, and definitely far more fragile. “What are you doing? Where are you taking me?”

The girl looked at him—or so he assumed, he couldn’t see her face behind that mask. She tilted her head again, and started muttering in that other language again before she spoke again; “… To help.”

Finally, it clicked for him what was so strange about the way she spoke. A foreigner, someone with extremely limited ability to speak Japanese. With that realization, Kaito also realized that the girl was probably trying to lead him to help someone else.

Maybe she found someone who was trapped? Someone was injured, and needed immediate medical attention?

“Uh… right, sorry, I get it now,” he said, at least, assuming he did. “Right. Lead the way.”

After another moment of muttering to herself, the girl nodded and grabbed him by the wrist again. This time he didn’t pull away, and he let her lead him to where ever she wanted to take him. She wasn’t in any hurry, oddly enough, but Kaito considered that she was just trying to be careful among the debris.

Soon, she took him to a strange sight.

There were a lot of people, of various injuries, sitting around in a clearing among the rubble. Men, women, children, all sorts of people. Survivors, all gathered in one place.

“Whoa, hey—” Yet the girl kept pulling him along, much to his confusion. “Where—how—there are so many survivors. Is this what you wanted me to see?”

The girl turned her head towards him again, muttered to herself, and grunted with frustration. She didn’t say anything, and continued to pull him along. She was looking around, clearly not having a destination in mind—but looking for someone. After several minutes, she apparently found who she was looking for.

“Boss!” She cried out, letting go of Kaito and swiftly running over to a group of survivors, all wearing matching uniforms, and all wearing masks.

The person she cried out too—“boss”, apparently—turned to face her. He was the clear leader of whatever group this was, aside from the clear title she used for him. He was different, wearing a dark hat and cloak that was a stark contrast against his white uniform. Yet Kaito was skeptical, since the boy she called out to was barely taller than she was herself.

When he did, Kaito heard the girl start speaking again, but in her native tongue. It was definitely French, though he couldn’t understand any of it. “Boss” was also speaking French, but something about the tone of his voice sounded familiar.

The girl gestured at Kaito as she spoke, and the boy turned his attention towards him—only to be taken aback.

“Wha— _Kaito?”_

_Kaito knew that voice._

Even though it had just clicked in his mind, he didn’t have a chance to call it out. “Boss’” hand moved up to his mask to remove it.

“ _Kokichi?!”_

Sure enough, he was staring into the eyes of Kokichi Ouma. It was the first time he had ever seen Kokichi look so surprised, with his eyes widened and lips parted. Though he quickly composed himself, and his gaze hardened. “Alana said that you needed help—what happened? Are you hurt? Is someone else hurt?”

The serious, almost cold tone Kokichi had startled Kaito further, and he felt even more dumbfounded than before. It took him a minute to even process what he had said. “Wha—no, I’m not hurt. Wait, is _that_ why you brought me here?” Kaito turned to the girl Kokichi called Alana, and frowned. “I was asking _you_ if _you_ needed help, not the other way around!”

“… Ah, that makes more sense,” Kokichi muttered, before he turned to Alana to address her. French again, probably to relay the misunderstanding. With how the girl bowed her head, Kaito could guess Alana felt embarrassed over the error.

“She can’t speak Japanese well,” Kokichi clarified, not that Kaito needed him to. “I guess she thought you said ‘I need help’ or something. She brought you here to me so I could help you. Not many Japanese people also speak French.”

“Well, I don’t need help—but what the hell _is_ this?” Kaito demanded, looking around at the other survivors. “What’s going on here?”

“We’ve been searching and gathering survivors here.” Kokichi scowled. “What’s it _look_ like?”

Kaito suspected that it should have been obvious, but it was hard to process. It was like the Kokichi Ouma he was talking to then was an entirely different one to the prankster he knew.

Well, he _thought_ he knew. In actuality, Kaito didn’t know Kokichi at all, and it was slowly sinking in just how much that was true.

He couldn’t think of a reply, but he didn’t have to. A scream pierced through the air, interrupting their reunion and startling the whole camp, and everyone turned towards it came from. There was smoke not too far off, a fire in the distance.

Someone was in danger.

Not even a second after, Kokichi was already on the move, shouting commands at the others in matching uniforms. He spoke in several languages, some of which Kaito actually _did_ recognize, but he suspected it all amounted to the same thing.

_Someone was in danger._

_They needed help._

Kaito took no time to give chase to Kokichi and his weird little gang, not one to stand around and wait when he knew he could do something to help.

Sure enough, the source of the smoke was also the source of the screaming. A little girl, no more than five years old, was crying and screaming on the second floor of a building that looked like it had just started to burn. She was holding a brown teddy bear, crying out for her parents desperately. He only saw a glimpse of her just before some debris fell from the roof and startled her away from the window.

And immediately, Kokichi had already found a path to the window, and started climbing the debris.

“Wha—Kokichi! _Hey!”_ Kaito wasn’t the only one to call out for him, but all of those other voices were lost on him as he gave chase. Kokichi was far more nimble than Kaito gave him credit for, and following the same path he took was difficult.

“Kokichi, wait!” he called out again. “Kokichi!”

Kaito didn’t expect him to listen, but he had to try. Gritting his teeth, Kaito climbed up the debris as best as he could, trying not to slip off and fall. He was amazed that Kokichi was able to do it so effortlessly—yet another moment that proved that Kaito knew nothing about this classmate. Kokichi made it inside the window long before he did, and jumped through the window without hesitation. Just when Kaito was getting close, he heard both the little girl scream and Kokichi cry out.

His heart skipped a beat. Something had happened.

Grunting as he stumbled inside, Kaito’s eyes fell on to the sight before him. Kokichi was on the ground, propping himself up with his arms, gritting his teeth and bleeding from his head. The little girl was underneath him, crying and shaking but unharmed. Not too far off was the wooden support beam that had fallen and hit Kokichi on his head.

While the blood had scared him, the fact that Kokichi’s legs were caught under debris scared him more.

“Kokichi!” Kaito cried out, making a beeline towards him. “Shit, no, Kokichi—”

Kokichi grunted, his whole body shaking as the blood from the wound on his head dripped onto the floorboards. While keeping his body propped up with one arm, he used the other to usher the little girl out from underneath him. It took a bit of squirming, but she managed to do so and run to Kaito’s side.

“Th-the ceiling collapsed,” Kokichi croaked out through his gritted teeth. “Couldn’t move out of the way in time.”

“Shit, shit, shit—” Kaito was barely paying attention to him, and instead, his focus was on the floor boards and beams that kept Kokichi trapped. “Hang on, I’ll get you out, just hang on…!”

Kaito tried to move the debris off of him, but it was too heavy. He couldn’t move any of it even an inch.

“Heh… ehe…” He heard Kokichi laugh, and when he glanced over to his face, he saw that he was looking at the little girl. “Hey… you’re okay, right?”

Sobbing, she shook her head. “I w-want my mommy, I want my d-daddy…! I’m scared!”

“Hey, shh, it’s all right,” Kaito couldn’t believe his ears, hearing Kokichi saying those words. Even in their situation, he was trying to console her, despite the pain he was surely in. “You’re gonna be fine… It’s gonna… gonna be okay. Kaito’s gonna get you out of here, okay?”

Kaito nearly choked. “What—Hey, what are you _saying?!”_

Except he knew what Kokichi was saying. He knew that Kokichi was trapped, and he knew that the debris wasn’t budging.

“Hey Kaito… you should get her out of here,” he insisted. “The building’s gonna collapse. There’s no time.”

“I am _not_ leaving you behind!” Kaito cried out. He grunted as he struggled harder to lift the debris. “Don’t you _dare_ give up on me, just hang in there…!”

“Kaito,” Kokichi spat out his name, and it made Kaito’s heart pound in his ears. Kokichi was glaring at him intensely, with a determination that Kaito had never seen before. “You need to go. _Now.”_

“No, fuck that! I will _not_ leave you to die!” Dread was settling in, however, as he struggled to lift any of the rubble. Panicked tears gathered in the corners of his eyes. “Come on, come on—”

“Kaito, _please,”_ Kokichi wheezed. “You need to leave, there’s no time—just get out of here!”

“Fuck that, and fuck _you!_ ” Kaito gritted his teeth so hard that his jaw hurt. “Now shut up! I almost got it…!”

Kaito was sure that if he could, Kokichi would keep on insisting to leave him to die, but the wound to his head had gotten to him. His eyes went unfocused for a moment, and his body swayed before he finally collapsed, unconscious.

If Kaito hadn’t been struggling to lift the debris, he would have immediately ran to Kokichi’s side. Yet he couldn’t let go, not when Kokichi was still trapped underneath. Kaito’s heart pounded harder.

The little girl had gasped, and done exactly what he had wanted to do. She ran back over to Kokichi’s side, and started shaking his shoulder, despite the fire and debris falling around them. “No, mister, please, wake up…! Don’t go to sleep now, wake up!”

Something about hearing her cry out in fear made something click. A rush of pure adrenaline, fueled by terror and panic, coursed through him. With a loud snarl, Kaito was finally able to lift up the debris, and even managed to throw it away far enough to where Kokichi’s legs were free.

“Fuck—” Kaito grunted, breathing hard and harshly. Though when it processed that Kokichi was free, euphoria struck him, and he laughed in pure disbelief. Immediately, he scooped Kokichi up into his arms. He didn’t have much time to think, and he quickly threw Kokichi’s unconscious form over his left shoulder.

Without giving her so much as a warning, Kaito scooped up the little girl with his free arm, and looked towards the window.

There was no way he would be able to climb them all down safely, he realized. They needed another way out.

Looking around frantically, his eyes caught on the entrance to the room. He saw intense fire on the other side, but they didn’t have much of a choice.

With a determined growl, Kaito barreled through the doorway, and searched for the stairs that lead to the bottom floor.

He was glad he did; the stairs were mostly intact. Throwing caution to the wind, Kaito ran down the stairs as quickly as he could. On the way down, a piece of the first floor ceiling fell, and hit him square on the back of his shoulder. He had cried out and stumbled from the impact, but with the adrenaline still coursing through him, the pain was barely anything to scoff at.

When he reached the bottom, Kaito heard voices.

“Kokichi! Kokichi, where are you?!”

“Boss? Boss…!”

While he didn’t entirely recognize all of the voices, he did know that they had to belong to the members of Kokichi’s little clown gang. Kaito drew in a deep breath to shout, but the smoke made him cough and gag instead. “Sh-shit—over here! Hey!”

The gang had heard him, thankfully, and it wasn’t long before they finally crossed paths.

“Oh my god, what—what happened?!” One of the members cried out, one with thin black hair tied back in a long pony tail.

“A support beam broke and the ceiling collapsed on top of them,” Kaito wheezed. “He saved her from it.”

“Here—hand him here—”

Though he was a little reluctant, Kaito swallowed down his nerves and gingerly handed Kokichi over to the other, who he could hear was breathing hard and heavily. He still had his mask on, but Kaito could guess he was crying.

“D… doctor,” Alana stammered. “Boss needs a doctor! Help!”

Among the panic, Kaito barely even acknowledged the little girl he was carrying in his arm. Now, though, he could hear her sobbing and crying, and only just then realized how tightly she had been clinging on to his shirt.

“We need to get out of here,” he declared, and the other two nodded in immediate agreement. Without another word, the three of them ran outside of the building, just seconds before the entire thing collapsed into a pile of ash and dust.

That night was hell when his superiors found out about the whole incident, scolding Kaito immensely for breaking a dozen protocols he didn’t even know existed. Yet they couldn’t scold him much, since he had lead them to the survivors Kokichi and his gang had been rescuing on their own.

With his shoulder bandaged up and treated, Kaito was dismissed from the scene and sent back to a shelter, along side Kokichi. He had remained unconscious the entire time, though the doctor who had examined him claimed that he would be fine. The relief Kaito felt from that new alone made him feel ten times lighter.

He managed to save him. Kaito had managed to _save_ Kokichi from what looked like certain death.

It was about midnight when Kokichi finally came to, groaning and whimpering. One of his legs had been fractured, and the other one entirely broken. It was a wonder how Kokichi wasn’t howling with pain the entire time he was trapped.

Still, even if he felt sympathy for Kokichi’s pain, he was far more grateful that he was _alive._

“Ghh…” Kokichi tried to sit up, but he hissed and laid back down. “Shit, fuck—”

“Hey, take it easy,” Kaito warned. “You’re in pretty bad shape. Don’t push yourself.”

“K… Kaito…?” Kokichi turned his head to look at him, and yet again, Kaito was met with one of the most honest expressions Kokichi ever had. There was clear pain, but he looked confused and astonished all at once. “I… You…?”

“I told you, I wasn’t going to leave you behind,” Kaito scoffed, crossing his arms. Though the motion made him wince, his shoulder still in pain. “After you passed out, I finally got that rubble off of you. I told you, didn’t I? I told you I’d get you out. I _told_ you.”

There was a sense of anger along side his relief, anger that didn’t seem at all fair. Anger towards Kokichi for trying to get him to leave him for dead. Anger at himself for almost believing he might not have had another option.

Kokichi was silent for a moment, but then he started chuckling. “You’re an… an idiot.”

“What—is that all you have to say?!” Now that rage felt more justified, and he gritted his teeth. “I saved your damn life! _You’re_ the idiot who was about to give up and die!”

“Ehe… You sound so angry…” Kokichi murmured. “You could have died. That’s why you’re… an idiot.”

“Who the hell do you think you are, you _asshole!”_ Kaito sharply stood, hands fallen to his sides and balled into fists. If it wasn’t for the fact Kokichi was suffering from a head wound, he might have punched him then and there. _“You_ could have died! _You_ almost died, and you—you—”

“—Told you to leave me behind?”

There was no mockery in his tone, nothing to indicate mischief. Kokichi’s tone had grown soft, almost cold, deprived of the cheer he was normally so used to. His eyes looked glassy, but he was smiling.

The tone and expression took the wind right out of Kaito’s sails, and it was hard to cling onto his misdirected anger after that. He wasn’t at all sure _what_ he was seeing in Kokichi’s eyes, but all he could feel while looking into them was regret.

Kokichi stared at him for a moment, before he sighed and turned away. “… I’m sorry. About your shoulder.”

Kaito blinked, and immediately, he grabbed his shoulder with his good hand. It was still sore, but it was nothing in comparison to the heavy damage Kokichi took.

Yet Kokichi wasn’t looking at him, voice wavering ever so slightly. It dawned on Kaito then that Kokichi felt _guilt_ over the injury.

“Don’t blame yourself for bad luck,” Kaito retorted. He threw himself back into his chair with a grunt. “There was no way I could leave you behind, and I probably would have gotten hurt somehow anyway.” Kokichi didn’t respond to him, and after a few moments of silence, Kaito relented; “… I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I _had_ left you behind _._ I just couldn’t leave you like that.”

Kokichi snorted, and it evolved into a low laughter. It wasn’t his usual laughter—no, nothing like it. It was softer, warmer, kinder… but most of all, it was genuine.

A genuine laughter and smile Kaito had never seen before. So bright, so brilliant, and never faltering. Like the Northern Star, that softly guided those who would dare to follow.

That sort of laughter was contagious, and Kaito eventually found himself laughing along side him. He didn’t know what was so funny, but a part of him didn’t care.

Now that he saw a glimpse of the person he never knew, Kaito was just glad he was able to save the star in front of him from burning out.


End file.
